Neglected voices in disability studies: the case of older visually impaired people
Sally French, King Alfred’s College of Higher Education
in Winchester
Co-author(s): John Swain, Northumbria University
Abstract
Visual impairment is very common in old age with 90% of visually impaired people in Britain being over the age of 60 (Davis 1998) and approximately one in six people over the age of 75 being visually impaired (RNIB 2002). Social and community provision is, however, very limited which can lead to depression and enforced isolation and dependency (Lovelock et al 1995, French et al 1997). Older visually impaired people are rarely offered rehabilitation or mobility training and a large proportion live in poverty rarely venturing outside their homes. Furthermore the help that is provided is frequently flawed by lack of accessible information, lack of consultation, poor co-ordination of services and a limited understanding of visual disability (Baker and Vinyard 1998).
In this presentation we will focus on some work we undertook in December 2002 for Exeter university. We were asked to select and review 15 large surveys and experimental studies of visually impaired people for a social work website. Although our inclination was to review research with a strong social model orientation, we found that such research did not exist especially in relation to older visually impaired people. Most of the studies we found were funded and conducted by charities (especially the RNIB) with a largely medical model orientation.Despite its obvious shortcoming, however, the research we found still gave rise to a sense of outrage at how this large group of disabled people are neglected within society.
This leads to many questions concerning Disability Studies which we would like to discuss:
- Is Disability Studies inclusive of all disabled people?
- How should we deal with knowledge which is underpinned by an individual model and funded by charities?
- How well does Disability Studies deal with excluded voices?
- How well does Disability Studies deal with multiple oppression?